Craft Beverage Expo, Beatlemania Coming to Bellefonte

With the annual Bellefonte Cruise drawing thousands of visitors, Father's Day weekend is already a busy one each year in downtown Bellefonte.

This year there will be even more to add to the festivities.

The Central PA Tasting Trail will host its third annual Summer Craft Beverage Expo from 3 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 16, in Talleyrand Park. That will be followed by the Cast of Beatlemania performing in the park at 7 p.m.

Admission for the Beatlemania concert will be free and open to all. Tickets for the Craft Beverage Expo, available only to those 21 and older, are $10 in advance or $15 day of and include admission, souvenir tasting glass and tasting at each trail member tent. Online ticket sales will open soon.

The Summer Craft Beverage Expo brings together a dozen microbreweries, distilleries, wineries and cideries that are part of the Central PA Tasting Trail, which provides a tasting experience at the area businesses by offering consumers a passport and special perks.

A special VIP hour will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. for Tasting Trail passport holders.

Kevin Lloyd, co-owner of Tasting Trail member Big Spring Spirits, said at a recent Bellefonte Borough Council meeting that the Craft Beverage Expo will be contained within a roped off area and will have one point of entry for checking identifications.

"Anyone that would want to consume alcohol would have to get a wristband and that would continue throughout the evening," Lloyd said.

Tents and food trucks also will not obstruct the path around the park, he said.

Lloyd said the expo is a "natural fit" for the weekend and for Talleyrand Park. Last year it drew about a thousand people.

The park figures to see even more visitors this Father's Day with the free Beatlemania concert.

The long-running Beatles tribute act has been a popular draw in Centre County in past years, having performed on Old Main Lawn and, last year, at the State Theatre.

Formed in 1980, the band recaptures the sound, look and feel from the biggest band of the 1960s and takes the crowd through the different phases of Beatlemania.

Beatlemania's show in Bellefonte will be part of the Summer Sounds from the Gazebo, which runs every Sunday from June through August and is sponsored by the Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association.

Committee chair JoAnn Knupp said earlier this year, as the association was still looking to secure funding for the concert, that Beatlemania is one of the biggest draws the concert series has ever tried to get. She said the cost to bring the band in is about $4,000.

Support from local businesses and community organizations helped provide the needed funding to make the concert possible.

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